Offside: The needs of the few

The latest is the reaction to the new timetable announced last week, due to come into play in December. As with every new timetable, the usual suspects – generally user groups and opposition parties – are united against it. This time, though, train users, represented by the group TramTreinBus, are joined by an unlikely bedfellow: the artistic elite of Brussels.

The new NMBS timetable has one main feature: scrapping early and late trains into and out of Brussels. Early and late trains have fewer users, so their cancellation will save money and have little effect, reasons the NMBS.

What this ignores, say users, is that early and late trains are of an importance far beyond the number of users, as there is no alternative. People who work late, or early, and live outside of the city have no other way of getting home.

The artistic leaders of Flanders and Brussels, however, have their mind on another group: those who go to concerts, performances and other events in the capital that see them busy until at least 23.00. Brussels-based outfits, particularly those with strong Flemish connections, like Rosas, Kaaitheater, Ancienne Belgique and KVS, count a large number of visitors from outside the city. And many of them drift into the venues’ cafes to spend money after performances.

What the arts establishment fears is that these people will give up coming to Brussels for such events altogether, unless it’s for a matinee.